U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), through its International Operations Division, recently opened a new support branch in Anaheim, Calif. to assist in processing select paper-based applications and petitions received from its international offices.
Background
The International Adjudications Support Branch (IASB) provides USCIS with greater operational flexibility to address seasonal and periodic fluctuations in the workload of the overseas international offices throughout the year. The IASB also provides USCIS with a ready team of trained staff available to travel overseas to support operations on an as-needed basis. While the support branch will not accept in-person appointments, it will provide invaluable customer service by significantly reducing processing times and allowing officers in international offices to schedule more appointments with customers and perform other operational duties.
Questions and Answers
Q: What types of cases does the support branch process? A. Initially, the IASB will focus its efforts on adjudicating non-health related applications to waive grounds of inadmissibility, (Form I-601) from USCIS’ office in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Q: May a USCIS customer file a Form I-601 waiver application directly with the IASB? A. No, customers must continue to file their waiver applications with USCIS at the U.S. Consulate having jurisdiction over their place of residence.
Q: Will the new branch accept in-person inquiries? A: No, the IASB is not open to the public for in-person inquiries.
Q: How will a customer know if USCIS has transferred their case to the IASB? A: USCIS will mail customers a notice when the agency transfers their case to the IASB.
Q: Why is the new branch located at the Los Angeles Asylum Office? A: By maximizing available office space, the support branch was able to immediately stand-up operations and process cases. In addition, the shared facility is close to the Los Angeles international Airport, offering easy access to international cities and simplifying the travel of staff overseas when necessary.
Q: How may the public contact the IASB? A: The public may contact the IASB by mail to:P.O. Box 65006, Anaheim CA 92815-5006, or by e-mail to: iopsla@fins3.dhs.gov.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) published a Federal Register notice on April 28, 2009 that changed the filing location and filing instructions for the Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Form I-90). The revised filing instructions require applicants to submit supporting documentation with their applications. Prior to this change, applicants were instructed to bring their supporting documentation to their biometrics appointments. The notice also revises the Direct Mail address for the Form I-90. Applicants must now file their Form I-90 and supporting documentation with the USCIS Lockbox facility in Phoenix.
This change in filing location affects all I-90 applicants filing a paper form, including those applicants filing the I-90 because their previously issued card was never received or because their existing card has incorrect data due to a USCIS error. This notice does not affect applicants filing an I-90 electronically or whose place of residence is outside the United States.
Beginning on April 28, 2009, applicants must submit their Form I-90 and supporting documentation to the USCIS Lockbox facility in Phoenix for initial processing, using the following addresses:
USCIS
P.O. Box 21262
Phoenix, AZ 85036
For USPS Express Mail and Courier Service deliveries, use the following address:
USCIS
ATTN: I-90
1820 Skyharbor Circle S Floor 1
Phoenix. AZ 85034
Fewer people are joining the long line for U.S. citizenship these days, following a surge of applications two years ago.
More than 1 million immigrants took the oath of citizenship in the year leading up to the 2008 presidential election, and another 330,000 are still waiting for approval. The big wave came just before the government’s application fee jumped to $675 from $400 in July 2007. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has worked to clear the backlog that resulted, and is now receiving surprisingly low numbers of new applicants.
Immigrants are generally eligible for citizenship once they have completed five years of permanent residency, or “green card” status. There are signs that the bad economy may be causing some to hold off.
“Receipts have not picked up as fast as we thought they would,” said Donald Neufeld, a top official at the agency, during a visit to New York last week.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, working in close partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the backlog for FBI name checks pending more than six months has been eliminated. This is the fourth milestone met by the agency as part of its joint plan with the FBI to completely eliminate the backlog of pending name checks.
Just 16 months ago, more than 349,000 name checks were pending; of that, nearly 150,000 had been pending for more than six months. All USCIS requests pending for six months or more as of February 28, 2009, have now been responded to by the FBI’s National Name Check Program (NNCP).
In April 2008, USCIS and the FBI established milestones prioritizing work based on the age of the pending name check. Priorities included processing all name checks pending more than three years by May 2008 (the FBI had already eliminated all cases pending more than four years); those pending more than two years by July 2008; and those pending more than one year by November 2008.
USCIS and FBI are on schedule to meet the next two goals: all name checks requests pending longer than 90 days to be completed by May 30, 2009 and, by the end of June 2009, the FBI will complete 98 percent of USCIS name check requests within 30 days and process the remaining two percent within three months. USCIS and the FBI will continue to focus on sustaining a rigorous and efficient screening of each name check request.
Elimination of the name check backlog is an example of USCIS’ commitment to making timely decisions about immigration applications and petitions, while maintaining the security and integrity of America’s immigration system.
MAHWAH, N.J. — A northern New Jersey widow’s fight to get her green card after the death of her husband could have a big impact on similar cases around the nation.
Mahwah resident Osserritta Robinson is an immigrant from Jamaica whose husband, a U.S. citizen, died in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash.
Immigration officials denied her green card application because the couple had been married eight months instead of the required two years.
An appeals court upheld the decision, but Robinson’s attorney tells The Record of Bergen County that he’s petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court.
An advocacy group, Surviving Spouses Against Deportation, says 170 widows and widowers face deportation because their citizen spouses died before two years of marriage.
IRVING, Texas — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must prepare for the challenge an immigration reform plan would pose, the agency’s current leader said Wednesday.
During the opening of a new sprawling USCIS district office in the Dallas suburb of Irving, acting deputy director Michael Aytes pointed out such facilities are among the improvements the agency can make to get ready for additional workload if lawmakers reform immigration policies.
“Every day that goes by is a day that we lose if were not doing something to better position ourselves for that reality when it happens,” Aytes said.
USCIS staffers are already trying to work through a backlog of applications of people seeking citizenship, green cards and other services.
In the North Texas district, applications for naturalization are 2 1/2 months behind than the desired goal of five months to process. Petitions to become a legal permanent resident, or green card holder, are behind four to five months, officials said.
While the agency has to focus on the current tasks and customers, it also must continue to invest in building new facilities, develop better case management systems and improve how services are delivered, Aytes said.
“All of those things we’ll help us to better prepare for whatever challenge we’re asked to accept,” he said.
President Barack Obama has said he is committed to comprehensive immigration reform. Latino lawmakers and advocates continue pushing for changes in U.S. immigration policy, including proposals to create a path for citizenship for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the nation illegally.
Over the last three months the USCIS has seen an impressive reduction in the amount of time needed to process I-130 Petitions for a US Citizen’s Spouse. Since the end of 2008 the processing times for this form have gone down nearly three months at both the California and Vermont Service Centers. As of today, the CSC and VSC are taking 99 and 172 days respectively to process an I-130.
This comes as good news to those applicants looking to get an IR-1/CR-1 Visa (instead of a K-3 Visa which is traditionally faster). The benefit of an IR-1/CR-1 Visa is that upon entering the US the holder of the visa immediately becomes a Legal Permanent Resident.
While members at VisaJourney have known for a while that the new I-134 form did not require a “public notary”, officially the USCIS still listed this as required on the Form Entry Page (FEP) for the I-134. The USCIS always states that the FEP takes precedence over any form instructions so as such VJ has kept the guides and other information as listing the public notary as needed.
Several weeks ago we contacted the USCIS regarding this error and they have finally corrected it. The FEP now reads:
You must sign Form I-134 in your full name. (Note: Signing Form I-134 is under penalty of perjury under U.S. law). For this reason, it is not necessary to sign Form I-134 before a notary, nor to have your signature notarize after you sign it.
As such all Guides on VJ will be updated to reflect this.
Traveling thousands of miles, transcending cultural boundaries, reuniting after a long separation — Eric Hayot and Chunyuan Di’s love story is one of persistence, and the Chicago Public Radio was intrigued.
The romance between Hayot, an associate professor of comparative literature and director of Asian Studies, and Di, a lecturer in Chinese, was featured on Sunday night’s the radio station broadcast of This American Life.
The tale was broadcast in State College through WPSU-FM. The broadcast can be heard at the WPSU Web site in the This American Life archives.
Hayot and Di spoke about the great lengths that Hayot took to find Di in Beijing after years of separation and how they struggled through distance and cultural barriers.
Sarah Koenig, a producer for This American Life, said she was at a party with her husband Ben Schreier, Penn State assistant professor of English and Jewish studies, when she first heard about Hayot and Di’s romance. Read the rest of this entry »
A Eugene man and his Canadian bride are still paying a painful price for their 2007 decision to tell border agents they were “just engaged” rather than “just married.”
University of Oregon student Nathaniel Spinney and his wife, Sarah Rutherford, are still living apart — 16 months after tying the knot on a farm in her native Nova Scotia.
The consequences of their impulsive but admittedly foolhardy decision to lie about their newlywed status have also prevented Rutherford, 26, from completing her master’s degree program at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
“It seems unintelligible now that we would think we could do something like that and get away with it,” said Spinney, a 25-year-old Eugene native and UO math major.
They could face another 3½ years of separation. Rutherford received a five-year “exclusion” from the United States as her penalty for providing false information to U.S. border agents. Read the rest of this entry »
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